A Step Towards Equality? The Admission of Women to Guardianship in the Austrian Civil Law in 1914

Abstract

According to the Austrian Civil Code (Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch = ABGB) from 1811, there were almost no possibilities for a woman to obtain guardianship of a child. Instead, the married father possessed paternal authority (patria potestas), which included the sole guardianship of his legitimate children. If the father was unable to exercise paternal authority, the courts had to appoint a guardian for his minor children. Based on the assumption that the female gender lacked the necessary abilities, women were generally excluded from guardianship. Only at the end of the 19th century did the women’s movement start to mobilize against the frequent exclusion of women from the guardianship of their own children. Moreover, the drastic neglection of the young made legal reforms ever more urgent. The legal possibilities open to women for taking over guardianship of a minor were first extended with the legislative amendment to the ABGB in 1914 (1. Teilnovelle 1914). This paper will focus on the causes for the extension of legal possibilities of women concerning guardianship due to the first legislative amendment.